“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers. Our power is in our ability to make things unworkable. The only weapon we have is our bodies. And we need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn. — Bayard Rustin

This quote is from Bayard Rustin, a behind-the-scenes Quaker civil rights activist who encouraged Martin Luther King to involve the youth of Birmingham in the marches. The water gun and shepherd dog responses by authorities swung the pendulum of public sentiment to justice in supporting the movement.

Conservative Republican Supreme Court Justice Scalia has been quoted as saying, in essence, that the 2nd Amendment does not guarantee the right of every individual to the ownership of every kind of firearms or weapons of mass destruction.

With all the instruction on YouTube and in the news reports of how to build illicit guns and stock a sniper’s nest in tall buildings overlooking sports stadiums and open-air music venues, might there not be a deranged individual who wants to set a larger tally than Las Vegas?

Let’s hope there is a Bayard Rustin who counsels and inspires the students of Parkland to rein in the possibility of carnage.

Donald G. Chafin

Wilmington